Mackinac Island. It’s a magical place that allows you to step back in time from the moment you first step off the ferry. I didn’t grow up aware of Mackinac Island. I wasn’t even sure what I was getting into the first time we drove the ten hours from Lafayette, Indiana, to the tip of Michigan’s mitten. I knew is it took a long time to reach this tiny dot on the map.

Once we arrived, it didn’t take long to learn the island residents have worked hard to preserve a feel of days long ago. It took even less time to fall in love with

this retreat.  Researching and then writing  A Wedding Transpires on Mackinac Island was truly a dream come true for me.

We’ve stayed at the Grand, in B&Bs and in Mackinaw City. Each time, I couldn’t wait to reach the island and explore its roads, shops, and Fort. It was only natural that it became the perfect place to set a contemporary romance.

From the moment I stepped off the ferry and heard the clip-clopping of horses’ hooves along the island’shistoric Main Street, I was transported back a good hundred years. Pronounced “Mackinaw” like Mackinaw City (but spelled differently so the post office could differentiate between the island and town), Mackinac Island is a place that time seemed to forget.

The diverse history on this island goes back hundreds of years, when Native Americans considered the island the home of their Great Spirit and local tribes gathered there each summer to fish. In the 1700s, lucrative French and American fur companies made their homes and millions of dollars on Mackinac until the British took over during the War of 1812 and held the island for three years before returning it to the United States. Then, in 1819, the first steamship of tourists arrived. The tourists have never stopped coming.